It's so internalized, the way your mind works in relation to anything - it's a process, but then it isn't. It's working all the time.

There's no bad writing; you did something. I was operating inside language, and I did something. I'm not ashamed of it.

I'll take any life in which I can make choices and have agency, and America is not a bad place for all that.

I have a hard time imagining a country or a government where I would say, "Oh, this is good," where I could live under a government that I respect for a day or a week, even to see what it feels like.

My books have been published all over Europe. They read me there, and I want to read them back. I also spend a lot of time in Europe, often meeting writers, and I'm sick of apologizing for the embarrassing shortage of translations in America.

You don't want your neurosurgeon to have doubts about the meaning of it all while he or she is operating on your brain.

I'm not nervous if I think about something for nine years and then I don't write it. Even if it fades it doesn't concern me. It'll come back if it's worth it.